It is an achievement. Realistically 4th is the best we should aim for as The US, China and Russia, through a combination of investment, population size and cheating should beat us.
2nd is incredible for us.
Rio Olympics 2016
- Thread starter LuisNaniencia
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It is an achievement. Realistically 4th is the best we should aim for as The US, China and Russia, through a combination of investment, population size and cheating should beat us.
2nd is incredible for us.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...why-team-gb-is-winning-so-many-olympic-medals
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/britain-revels-return-olympic-superpower-status-033515778--spt.html
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/team-gb-cyclists-peaked-olympics-154945923.html
Invest the money, get the results. True for countries like the US, true for GB.
This is not a new development, I remember hearing about things like that back in the 70's and 80's but the amount of shared training that athletes from all over the world do is pretty cool. There are runners that train in groups, often spending time in multiple countries, swimmers that do the same, athletes from all over attending the same university where they are often teammates on the university teams, the US and Canadian medal winners who are married to each other, etc. You of course have coaches who move (see the Karoli's and their effect on US Women's gymnastics).
Certainly there is a lot of pride for all the athletes to represent their nation, but in a way it is one more thing blurring the lines (and this is a good thing) on nationality at the Olympics. More and more we will see athletes with parents from different countries, training in a third country, under coaches from yet other countries coupled with training partners from even more countries. Making those athletes true products of an international effort.
Some of this is driven by sponsorship money, they set up training groups and camps for their "stable of runners" , some of it by strong university programs that include a great education, some by following great coaches around,
Certainly there is a lot of pride for all the athletes to represent their nation, but in a way it is one more thing blurring the lines (and this is a good thing) on nationality at the Olympics. More and more we will see athletes with parents from different countries, training in a third country, under coaches from yet other countries coupled with training partners from even more countries. Making those athletes true products of an international effort.
Some of this is driven by sponsorship money, they set up training groups and camps for their "stable of runners" , some of it by strong university programs that include a great education, some by following great coaches around,
Oh I know how the strategy worked but the US, China and Russia (OK they were depleted this time round) all put a lot into winning at the Olympics and have considerably larger populations than the UK.
Second is the best that is possible for us, to be honest, I didn't think that it was possible for us to get higher than third before this Olympics.
Speedo dropping its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte for his actions.
He's an absolute idiot for making that rubbish up. That tedious interview with Matt Lauer was cringey to watch.
By the way, fantastic performance by GB. Remarkable achievement, finishing second ahead of China. Won medals in a variety of sports as well.
US dominated the pool and gymnastics. GB dominated the cycling and won a lot in sports they haven't traditionally been strong in. They were excellent.
By the way, fantastic performance by GB. Remarkable achievement, finishing second ahead of China. Won medals in a variety of sports as well.
US dominated the pool and gymnastics. GB dominated the cycling and won a lot in sports they haven't traditionally been strong in. They were excellent.
Don't forget athletics, the US did quite well there, even winning medals in some events that a US team member had not won in decades (since 1908 in the case of the 1500m race for men). US athletes won 12 total medals in gymnastics.
We almost broke the top10 which was the objective. Well, staying in front of Spain is pretty cool anyways.
If they added those home friendly sports like they always do (Karate and Baseball for Tokyo) we would've made it.
If they added those home friendly sports like they always do (Karate and Baseball for Tokyo) we would've made it.
Just googled a bit. Britain had just 15 medals in Atlanta. What happened between then a now? Just a lot of investing in sports or was there something else also?
In a nutshell - investment in sport, targeting sports with shallow competition and a 'win or die' policy for funding allocation i.e. the sports that perform poorly lose their funding.
So there's a system and an idea and a lot of money is put into it?
If only that happened here.
UK Sport are responsible for strategy and if they fail to perform they will be replaced too. It is quite the capitalist system in essence.
The National Lottery began around the same time as Atlanta and funding from that began to be invested in Olympic Sports
From just £5m per year before Atlanta, UK Sport's spending leapt to £54m by Sydney 2000, where Britain won 28 medals to leap to 10th on the medal table. By the time of London 2012 - third in the medal table, 65 medals - that had climbed to £264m. Between 2013 and 2017, almost £350m in public funds will have been lavished on Olympic and Paralympic sports.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37150155
How was uk sport financed before UK sport was established?
Along with the NHS, sport investment is one of those things I'm proud to pay for with my tax.
From the government still but at a very low level. UK Sport was set up to create a strategy for success and enjoys a lot of funding from the National Lottery.
There is the whole debate in is it worth putting so much state money in, of course we had to get a strong team for the London Olympics so that drove the increases. After London Cameron guaranteed the funding for another cycle that brings us to now. Even so we outperformed even our best expectations and had the best increase of any post host nation ever.
On a personal level I love it and think the Olympics are great for the national mood. It has been so refreshing to have the news dominated by British success at the Olympics rather than ISIS, Brexit etc.
Theresa May has said that the winning athletes will be honoured and the usual limit on honours will be lifted for this year so perhaps she see the political currency in a top performing Olympic team. Of course you can argue it is a distraction from real issues and that we will become like Russia or China who use The Olympics to create feelings of national pride, to look good on the international stage and to distract from domestic problems.
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Well sometimes you need a distraction from all the shit going on and it's nice to feel proud of your nation's sportsmen and women. It's the same here, during the Olympics sports was the main theme and our medals not the stupid politicians. Even better since elections are close and media is full of their hollow, stupid, never fulfilled promises. So to see them on 4th or 5th pages of papers was refreshing.
I asked all this cause it's all the talk here, how much is invested in sports or in Croatia's case not invested. We had 10 medals which is remarkable for such a small country. It's even more remarkable since sports is really neglected, if it's not football and even in football most of the league is poor (Dinamo Zagreb and NT being exceptions).
This success and it's the biggest success in our Olympic history is in majority product of individual efforts. Of course politicians already promised to give money to sports which got the medals but they'll forget it tomorrow.
I can only imagine what would happen if it were actually some money in sports or more than till now..
I asked all this cause it's all the talk here, how much is invested in sports or in Croatia's case not invested. We had 10 medals which is remarkable for such a small country. It's even more remarkable since sports is really neglected, if it's not football and even in football most of the league is poor (Dinamo Zagreb and NT being exceptions).
This success and it's the biggest success in our Olympic history is in majority product of individual efforts. Of course politicians already promised to give money to sports which got the medals but they'll forget it tomorrow.
I can only imagine what would happen if it were actually some money in sports or more than till now..